What's the current thinking/best practice for browser file cleanup.

I see the AU brings the option of deleting temp files in Edge whenever the browser is closed. This is something I used to do with IE but with Ten and Edge that option has not been available until now.

I wondered what the latest thinking is on whether its a good idea to automatically delete stuff and if so, what options would you choose ?

I'm just experimenting with the 'Always clear this when I close the browser' option selected and these are the settings I'm using.

Mooly said:

I see the AU brings the option of deleting temp files in Edge whenever the browser is closed. This is something I used to do with IE but with Ten and Edge that option has not been available until now.

I wondered what the latest thinking is on whether its a good idea to automatically delete stuff and if so, what options would you choose ?

I'm just experimenting with the 'Always clear this when I close the browser' option selected and these are the settings I'm using.

Whether or not people choose to delete their history on exit is a personal choice I guess. I have always deleted it as it doesn't provide me with many benefits, just an accumulation of data and once I close the browser I pretty much never need to go back through my history. In addition, with internet speeds being a lot faster than they used to be, I don't notice any difference in having locally cached web content.

So, here are my settings:




Even though I generally don't save passwords for websites in the browser, I don't select to delete passwords, as my Inoreader password is stored there due to it being something that's used often. People who also store their passwords in the browser would obviously leave this unchecked too, I just choose not to keep them there as I'm not being keen on the idea that anyone using your PC, even briefly, can log into websites as you. Needless to say, I'm not keen on the way Microsoft automatically log everyone into Microsoft owned websites without any option to turn it off either (except use in-private mode).

The bottom ones I keep un-checked too. This is one of the areas where Microsoft improved Edge over IE. Saving your pop-up exceptions was already possible in IE, however with IE, full-screen permissions were deleted every time you cleared your browsing history, which was a nightmare. That meant every time you visited YouTube, Vimeo, etc. for example and full-screened a video, you needed to click that annoying box to accept full screen mode again, and again, and again. To say that was tedious is an understatement and so I'm glad that it's now a separate setting in Edge.

Always good to hear your views. I have around 45 sites set up with login details stored in Edge. The only reason for thinking about deleting temp stuff automatically is simply to reduce clutter and ensure any problem or dubious files are deleted. I notice free disk space soon goes down after a cleanup, and mostly because of temp internet files.

ARC1020 said:

In addition, with internet speeds being a lot faster than they used to be, I don't notice any difference in having locally cached web content.

That's good to hear and was always something I wondered over.

dalchina said:

To me, it's a personal choice.
a. are you trying to hide what you've done and where you've been? If so, there are better ways (sand boxing).
b. as regards temporary files- well, they are temporary. I just let a Ccleaner run clean this when I run it before updating my disk image.
If space is a problem with respect to these, you have a much more significant issue.
c. considering cookies, some financial sites rely on their cookies to be present in order to 'recognise' your computer. Yes- it's true! I mean, consider what happens if you simply use a different browser.. So in some exceptional cases clearing cookies can be practically problematic.

:)

a/ nope, nothing nefarious or naughty. As a mod on another site (not PC related) I get to click through a heck of a lot of stuff in the course of a day.

b/ Temp files is pretty much the sum of it. I don't like them and if they are not doing any good then I thought why not auto zap them each time I close Edge. SO its good to hear different views on this.

c/ Ah ! Now this is very interesting. How long have you got ?

One financial site I do use is trustnet dot com. Its the only financial site out of all the many I have as favourites. Now I don't believe in coincidences so I'll run this by you.

Installed W10 around November last year. There was no issue with trustnet login details, it being just like here with a user name and password. I regularly manually deleted all Edge history and files except passwords and 'cookies and saved data'. No problems at all. A couple of months ago I decided to clear everything (so ticked those options) and re-entered login details for all the sites. trustnet would not remember the details and I have had to manually log in each time. I thought... I'll change the password and see if that will stick. Just the same. Not remembered. The Acer PC that has not had the passwords etc cleared still logged on perfectly each time. Now the even weirder bit. My Android tablet that has no knowledge of all these goings on still logs in with the original password that it was first set up with. That's a bit scary for a financial site, although I'm not bothered as such because I have no personal details entered on there.

I haven't as yet tried the Acer on this site again (which is currently having W10 AU built up).

Slartybart said:

Interesting that Edge differentiates between Passwords and Cookies ... that's an improvement ... wonder if / how it works.

When you save a password in Edge it saves the User Name and Password against that Website Address (URL) in Windows Credential Manager. When you visit that Website again, it matches the URL that's in the browser address bar to what's stored in Credential Manager and automatically populates the User Name and Password for you.

Although this works the same with both Internet Explorer and Edge, Internet Explorer handles this better. The reason is that in Edge the setting is an all or nothing setting, I.E. If 'Offer to Save Passwords' is set to on, it will ask you to save the password for all websites, as expected. However, if you set 'Offer to Save Passwords' back to off again, it won't just stop asking to save new passwords, it also won't populate the User Name and Password for sites you already have stored in Credential Manager.

So for me who doesn't use it to store all passwords, just the odd one, Internet Explorer is more flexible in that you can tell it to stop asking to save new User Names and Passwords, but it will still populate User Names and Passwords for sites you already have stored in Credential Manager.

dalchina said:

The last suggests once the cookie is set to indicate you have a login session open, changing the password on the site doesn't override it or cause a cookie with different content to be set. If so, bad design/programming.

Your experience with Edge suggests maybe the cookie isn't being set, or if it is, isn't checkable. The first should be easy to verify.
Might be informative to compare with a different browser. Odd.

I'll try this with IE later today if I get the time and see how that fares.

ARC1020 said:

When you save a password in Edge it saves the User Name and Password against that Website Address (URL) in Windows Credential Manager. When you visit that Website again, it matches the URL that's in the browser address bar to what's stored in Credential Manager and automatically populates the User Name and Password for you.

I can see most of my login details in Credentials Manager' although Trustnet never seems to make it there.

Just tried trustnet in IE but with no joy. As soon as you exit the browser and then return the login has been cleared. IE isn't offering to store a password although the site itself (as do most) has a 'remember me' tick box.

Just tried the Android device, still with the old password setting and that logs straight in. Scary.